Communion on the Free Throw Line

Through the day and evening, most of my Facebook friends have been posting family photos of everyone in their Easter finery. All of the photos have either been taken outside amidst blooming flowers, at church in a traditional sanctuary, or in front of a cross covered with flowers at church. I haven't posted any family photos today. This is for several reasons.

1. We are minus a family member. Adam is away at college and it is our first Easter without him. I have missed him all day.
2. There is no Easter garb at our house. Our church, Tapestry Church, is very casual. We don't really dress up. In Wisconsin, it is really not very wise to buy spring-y clothes to wear on Easter anyway because the weather this time of year is so unpredictable. We still have about 4 feet of snow at the end of our driveway. Although we've had some good snow melt the last few days, with temperatures up into the upper 40s, we also had a 15-minute snow storm today and it was 34 degrees when I was driving home from church. My Easter attire consisted of a bright green sweater shell worn as a vest over a long sleeved white blouse with khakis and a spring-weight outerwear coat. Robert wore a yellow tie and sport coat with his jeans. Noah wore jeans and a T-shirt. Everyone else was in similar attire.
3. There are no blooming flowers as we are pretty much still covered in snow, as previously mentioned. Our yard is a wooded lot and we don't get a lot of sunlight so it is even slower to melt. On campus today I did see patches of grass and there are some sprouts of flowers coming up. Spring flowers will be here soon, but if we had taken photos outside we would have either been dripped on from the melting snow dripping from the eaves or we would have been standing in snow.
4. Our church meets in an elementary school gym. We don't have a backdrop of polished organ pipes. Instead we have "Jump Rope for Heart" banners along the walls. We don't have a cross decorated with flowers...or a cross at all. We have a projector and a screen which shows different graphics.

So that's why we have no family Easter picture.

 

However, as we remembered GUILT--GRACE--GRATITUDE tonight, I look around at the faces of young couples who have been married in our church (as in the bride of Christ, not the school gym) in the past couple of years. I sat next to woman who came to know Jesus through out church and now she teaches me so much about the wonder and excitement of new life in Christ. I watched my youngest son present and share the elements of the Lord's Supper with others. The bread that was broken tonight in remembrance of Jesus was baked from scratch by one of our members. And...

 

As I waited in line to receive the bread and juice I looked down and smiled. I was taking communion on the free throw line.

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